Taunton City Hall at 15 Summer St. has been closed since an arson fire the morning of Aug. 17, 2010.

City departments relocated to the former and vacant Lowell M. Maxham School building at 141 Oak St.

Previous estimates presented to the City Council to repair the downtown City Hall building, which mainly suffered extensive water damage, have ranged from $15 million to $23 million.

The city filed a $6 million lawsuit in 2012 against both its former insurance carrier and local agent. The claim is that Axis Insurance Company has no grounds to withhold $1.58 million of a $4.8 million settlement with the city.

The bulk of the suit, $4.4 million, is filed against Farrell Backlund Insurance Agency of Taunton for allegedly failing to provide professional advice that otherwise would have ensured the city a much higher insurance settlement.

Progress

The city has hired a construction company to demolish the 145-year-old Leonard Block/Star Theater building at 107-111 Main St.

By tearing down the dilapidated Star, which nearly abuts City Hall, the process of repairing and renovating City Hall will be greatly facilitated, according to officials.

It will also create the potential for additional parking.

The city took ownership of the Star in late 2013, when a housing court judge ordered former owner Michael O’Donnell to hand it over to the city because of his failure to make structural repairs and remove an accumulation of junk from inside the four-story structure.

Demolition has not yet started and could take as long as three months to be completed.